Yesterday was the last day of school for students, today is the last day of school for teachers! I'm very happy to say that it's been a great year overall! But I'm also happy that summer is starting, if you know what I mean. Updates won't speed up for a while, sadly, I'm likely to be fairly busy with professional development and other projects.
Anne Camp: Oops! I didn't consider that it would be read that way. I was looking for something that wasn't immediately combative. He's not really face-planting on Danny. It's more like he's giving Danny a hug, but he's not very good at it, and Danny is interpreting it as an attack.
Richard1081: Thank you for reviewing! I might use some of your ideas! :)
Fiery Melanix: Thank you for all the ideas! I'll try to use some of them. I have some other things I'd like to talk to you about, so I'll send you a PM later, after I'm done-done with school. :)
17: That's the vibe I was going for!
Potkanka: Yeah, I don't know if they're real, either, but I figure that if they are, they're likely to be out of Tucker's price range, and bringing weapons to school is generally frowned on, so... I don't know.
Black Cat: Thank you for sticking with the story! I've been enjoying reading your reviews on my other work as well.
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Chapter 138: In the Real World
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Danny had to wonder why these things happened to him. Was he just unlucky, or did he make bad decisions? Was it a result of chance, or was some higher power punishing him?
Whichever it was, he was tired of continually finding himself in these situations. He elbowed Vlad in the face, and rolled off the beanbag, grabbing Cujo as he did so.
"Back off!" he shouted at Vlad. "Or- Or- Or I'll throw Cujo at you!" He lifted the small dog in front of him, like he was holding a weapon. Jeez, why had he said something like that? That was stupid. He couldn't throw Cujo. What if he got hurt? What if his feelings got hurt?
"Daniel, son-"
"I'm not your son, don't touch me!" said Danny, taking a stumbling few steps backwards. Usually, he reacted to Vlad better than this, but the man had surprised him, he was still half-asleep, and, honestly, it took him a lot of self-control not to react to Vlad with violence and fear all the time. Well, maybe not so much since their most recent truce, but his initial reaction towards Vlad was always suspicion and hostility.
Vlad's face twisted as if he had been stabbed. Then it darkened. He floated forward, over the beanbag. Then, as Danny scrambled backwards again, this time running into a beanbag and falling, Vlad stopped. He lowered his hand.
"I love you, Daniel, truly I do," he said. "But why won't you see?" He took another step forward, and Cujo growled again. "I truly want what's best for you, and Danielle. Surely, this whole incident has taught you Jack, and Maddie, too, I suppose, aren't capable of caring for, for providing for you. They can't even begin to understand you. Not like I can. Not like you can understand me."
Vlad looked taken aback at the last, as if he hadn't meant to say that.
"I-" said Danny, his voice cracking. "You're saying that you can care for me better? After everything you've done to me? You- You- You tortured me, Vlad. You tried to melt Danielle. How is that caring?"
"That-" said Vlad. "I wasn't in my right mind. I was sick. I've seen- And I can change. That's the beauty of this place, Daniel. Don't you see? It shows all the ways we can change, all the ways we can be better. You must have felt it, downstairs. It wasn't for long, but you, Danielle- We were a family. You must have felt that. Don't you want that again?"
Danny bit down hard on his lip. He had felt something. He didn't want to admit it.
"You know," said Danny, "when you first, when you first showed yourself to me, I was really happy for like, half a second. Then I remembered that you tried to kill my dad and you had me in a box." Danny shook his head. "I wanted you to be nice," he said, "but you were always so awful." Danny hiccuped. "And-" his brain finally processed the other implication of what Vlad had said. "Are you talking about staying here? We can't do that."
"You wouldn't even remember anything else," begged Vlad. "Please."
Danny shook his head harder. Cujo wasn't ever a threat to Vlad. Danny wasn't currently a threat to Vlad. Vlad could jump him and drag him downstairs. Vlad losing his mind hadn't been something he and Ellie had considered when they decided to come down here. "No. That's not- You don't want to do that. Not really. You- I-" What could he say? "I do want to fix this, between us. Between the three of us."
That was true. That was painfully true. Danny didn't want to keep up the conflict with Vlad, had never wanted it in the first place, but once it started, Danny had to fight back, he had to stay alert, wary, vigilant. Vlad always had some scheme going on, and Danny couldn't just let them happen.
"I want to fix it," continued Danny, keeping hold on Cujo, who was practically vibrating, "and for things to be better, but I want it to be real, for it to happen in the real world. Not in some fantasy, where we're stuck in a few rooms forever. That would- We wouldn't be able to handle that, Danielle and I, I mean. We couldn't handle being trapped like that. You know that."
"But it's the only way," said Vlad. "We can erase the past, rewrite it." He came closer again.
"I'll remember this," said Danny, trying a different tack. "I'll know something's wrong." He took a deep breath. "But we can go upstairs, and move on. We can do real things. Do this for real."
Vlad was shaking, too. Was Danny shaking? Yes. He was shaking. This wasn't as bad as talking to his parents, but there were so many different emotions were tied to Vlad and his relationship with Vlad. He'd been hopeful again, and again, and again.
"We can go upstairs, and think this through rationally," said Danny. "I know, I know you like having a plan, and everything in order, and we can do that up there. Where we can think straight. Please, Vlad." He blinked rapidly, trying to banish tears. "I don't want to go down there. I don't want to forget everyone."
Vlad opened his mouth as if to say something, then snapped it closed, turned and fled. Danny watched him go. He inhaled, then breathed out slowly. That had been- He didn't know what that had been. He didn't want to be here anymore. He set Cujo carefully on the ground, and started going back to the stairs, moving as quickly as possible. Ellie would be able to get everyone else, but if Vlad changed his mind, and decided to drag Danny down to the previous floor, Danny wouldn't be able to stop him.
But-
He couldn't leave. He turned around. Crap. This was going to be like the stairs all over again.
Vlad might hurt Ellie. Ellie might hurt Vlad. Vlad might do something stupid, like holding one of his classmates hostage. His classmates might do something stupid. His classmates would do something stupid. His classmates were already doing stupid things. Not that he was much better, Ancients preserve him.
He sat down.
"Cujo, what should I do?"
The dog yipped and wagged its tail. Helpful. Danny patted his head, then eyed him speculatively.
"Hey, Cujo," he said. "Could you find..." he hesitated. Who would be easiest? "Star and Kwan? Do you remember Star and Kwan?"
Cujo barked and bounced, then flew off a short distance, landed, and barked again.
Danny sighed, and got up. "Good boy," he said.
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Star and Kwan were easy. All they had wanted to do was talk. Get things off their chests. Rant. Vent. Danny hadn't realized how much they kept in, how much they repressed and hid in order to stay in the A-list. He had known both of them had hidden sides. Star got all As, without cheating or forcing nerds to do it for her. Kwan wrote poetry, and wanted to be a doctor.
But there was an awful lot of resentment there, too. Resentment for the other A-listers, resentment towards people who didn't have anything to hide. Resentment towards people who had expectations from them, who forced them into roles. He hoped that it wouldn't become a problem, later. He thought it probably wouldn't. Danny had been prodded into joining the venting session on the way to the stairs, and he certainly had some resentment, especially towards Vlad. Also, they hadn't acted on anything, despite the effects of the floor, which meant that they didn't really want to. They were just blowing off steam, and being really affectionate with each other.
Anyway, they really did want to leave, so Danny just had to keep their attention, keep them from running off. Distractions were rarer once they got farther from where they had entered the floor, and all the ghosts, but still present.
It was a relief when he finally got them to go up the stairs. He sat down on the bottom one with a sigh. Should he go up? Or try to get some more people up there? Vlad was always a concern.
As if thinking about it summoned him, Vlad appeared from the beanbag forest.
"Wait!" he shouted, as Danny made to run up the stairs. "I won't fight!"
Danny didn't know what made him stop. Poor impulse control didn't translate to an inability to lie, didn't mean that Vlad couldn't still be duplicitous.
"I want to fix this," said Vlad, tearfully. "I want to fix this, just, tell me how, Daniel."
Danny shook his head. "I don't know. I don't- Maybe- Maybe during our week of training, once we get out? We can talk about it?" The suggestions sounded weak to Danny, and, man, was that week going to be awkward. Heck, it was going to be awkward once they got to the next floor.
"We can talk about it?" asked Vlad, hopefully.
"Y-yeah. So why don't we go upstairs? We- We can go together?"
That suggestion had more power over Vlad, and Danny climbed the first few steps. If Vlad charged him, Danny could run up to the next floor, and Vlad would probably follow and snap out of it. Probably. Danny hoped. Gosh, he wished Jazz was here. She was the psychologist. She was the one who would be able to understand, interpret, not him. She'd probably even enjoy some of this.
Everyone was going to need a therapist at the end of this.
